[ck3D]

Haha, that's actually super on-point in many ways as far as I'm concerned. I'm honored, thanks! Great to hear you've found your rhythm and are naturally making progress too.

[zykov eddy]

Sanek, on 09 June 2020 - 05:54 PM, said:

@Maarten I was looking at the picture thinking "how damn big Shaky Ground 3 is for cryin' out loud", then I looked at the user's name and felt quite embarrassed.
I agree that it look lovely, instantly recognisable as the old european town of some kind.


And here's another shot from my map with a couple of, umm, references.


Scptr0011.png

I see what you did there

[Maarten]

Gambini: thanks!!
@ck3D: nice to hear you've many activity/ideas too! This map`s main.focus will be exploring the town / city (this is just a part actually haha).
The town is actually surrounded by nature/castle/buildings...if inspiration keeps coming, I will make a small level pack (like a level in the castle).
But for now my focus is on finishing this as a stand alone map.

Looking forward to your work!

@Sanek: haha hilarious misunderstanding Nope, no SG part 3...it's a map just by me haha.

Fun stuff in your shot btw!

Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it!!

[Maarten]

...just to let you know. Things are going extremely fast right now: 1800+ sectors, 14500+ walls, 3820 sprites
Finishing the last locations & polishing stuff.
Aiming for a July release, but no promise yet!

[11bush]

I have been doing a lot of work lately with the duke palette, and trying to make passable military style characters and enemies, and actually adding them to the art file instead of high res folders.

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[ck3D]

It's definitely too early for that (thing barely has 100 sectors as of now) but still, my mapping time being limited again these days, here's a very barebones screenshot (attachment) of a small plaza I started building as the start of map 3 for Blast Radius a little while back, complete with chaingun muzzle flash to compensate for the default visibility (that also masks a cool sprite structure, oops), back section of the building is completely built on a 45-degree axis (think half pyramid) so building the inside is going to be just as fun as it's going to be funky. I'm thinking it might be funny for a little while to just post regular updates of the progress on that same plaza area, for this map. I think I want two or three more city maps and then the rest will be different stuff.

And here's an early screenshot from my CBP 2020 part (undetailed and with some cosmetic problems that have been fixed since, a lot of stuff has been added to the scenery too) in spoiler tags for the curious.

Spoiler

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[ck3D]

Not satisfied with the screenshot of map 3 I posted last night so here are a few more now that I've extended the boundaries of the map, allowing better perspective. I think those give a better sense of the scale. Been on a spree this morning and added 100+ sectors, the design style is starting to remind me of NY Plaza which is one of my favorite levels ever which gets me even more pumped in return.

All screens are pretty dark due to the default visibility settings, again - everything will be made brighter eventually. I just like working in that context for shading/lighting and then eventually boost the visibility in the level just pre-release (which so many of my old levels lacked - been thinking of fixing them then packaging them together again sometime).

First two shots are a better view of the plaza in its current state. I'm getting some weird sprite clipping bugs (see the red light in the second screenshot - it looks like it's clipping into a wall, except it's really not) and texture display bugs on certain sloped floors, I think that has to do with how large the sectors still are and also maybe the extreme shade values of some sprites (?), either way only minor stuff that's both temporary and not game-breaking (it's just funny I never encountered them before, but I'm kind of new at large scale structures).

Third shot is just a simple street corner with public toilets I just made with some wall-shading I like. Area with the toilets is still undetailed/unshaded etc, absolute beta shit.

Fourth shot is the sloped back of the building I was mentioning earlier (also gives an idea of the size). There's a handful of balconies already, I'll probably make more and maybe find tricky ways of connecting them with the indoor areas. Making the inside of the building is especially going to be fun because I want it to follow the structure of the outside, so it's going to be all built on a diagonal axis too with plenty of SOS and I'm already inspired for how I want everything to look like. (Also that side of the building will eventually have windows etc.)

[Seb Luca]

@ck3D : the last screen is so amazing !!

[ck3D]

Thanks! Now that wall (as well as its symmetrical counterpart) has tons of windows with gradient colored lighting reflecting off neon signs too. I just added 50+ more sectors. Took the luxury of a day off work and ended up mapping all day, ha.

[ck3D]

Added a lot to the map again and it's now around 300 sectors/1800+ walls. Basically extended the area around the plaza so now there's actually a proper back street behind the central building (was absent in the last shot as well as a bunch of new elements), finished its surroundings with detailed little roads and whatnot and now that the basic layout of that zone is complete and before I start adding more detail or crafting the inside of the main building, I started making both the exterior and the interior of one of the skycrapers that I intend to have surrounding it, beginning with a cool circular elevator with a window with a permanent view on the plaza/central building/essentially the whole level - top floor is quite high so riding the elevator really takes the player up there and makes them feel like they're dominating the plaza which I'm content with as I find it feels really cool. Been having fun with all kinds of lights too.

I've also very much reflected on how I was going to tackle building the interior of the half-pyramid-shaped building technically - probably going to make a template of the size and shape of the building exteriors, copy-paste it multiple times, give them various heights and then use that as the basis for every individual floor. From then on, with that technique it should be easy to just all drag them in place and have them overlapping then connecting once they're done, and that'll save me lots of SOS-related hassle.

Kinda trying to post every time I build something significant or get tangible progress as people were asking about my workflow earlier. Here I basically made the main hub and now, I've started working the surroundings to clean up that whole section (besides leaving the south of the map open for a later segment I have in mind) before I get to fill in the hub. Also as the 2D plane has been more or less defined already, I can now start seriously concentrating on the 3D plane with the vertical action/features. For instance here I picked the location of the elevator ride thing on the basis of a compromise between where the view would look the best and the action would be the most practical, and I have a dozen of other angles where I could remake similar things. Not that I intend this map to be as enormous as the first two though.

[Merlijn]

That building looks really good! Love the scale and the shape of it.
Will the player be able to get on top of the angular rooftop? That would be really cool I think!

[ck3D]

Thanks! Yeah of course I want all the space to be able to be explored three-dimensionally (or at least as much of it as possible), the idea is in that section of the level the player will have to infiltrate the central building from the bottom then make it to the top. I'm planning several openings/balconies at different levels communicating with the inside of the building using SOS/random Build tricks and whatnot, for that I'll try to build every floor independently then move them all into the same shared 2D space as the building and see what the best I can do is in terms of connections. I already have the first and last one (entrance and exit) planned.

[Ninety-Six]

I will never stop being impressed by multiple SOS trickery.

[ck3D]

Ninety-Six, on 19 June 2020 - 06:21 PM, said:

I will never stop being impressed by multiple SOS trickery.

Me too, here just don't expect Zaxtor/Billy Boy levels of SOS trickery with those one-way windows that exploit bugs and whatnot - could never really get into doing those and I'm wary of everything that relies on a glitch - I'm aiming for something technically more basic and simple. It's still going to be several layers interconnected with just one on different levels here though (if I can pull it off the way I envision it), so indeed not exactly beginner level. But I've been practicing, generally speaking, the first two maps already have quite a lot of SOS as I've been having a lot of fun trying to make the layout of each map as coherent as possible with the design with the indoor locations and their interconnections actually matching the 2D space, size and scale of the outdoor constructions, etc. This building and region of the level is essentially going to be the same thing, just concentrated. Think Lunatic Fringe type of trickery meets Duke Hard thematics.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 20 June 2020 - 03:45 AM, said:

Think Lunatic Fringe type of trickery meets Duke Hard thematics.

I'm liking it already.

[Maarten]

More information about this upcoming release soon. Very soon.

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[Sanek]

@Maarten this particular shot reminds me of your part in Roch Island a little bit. Glad to hear that your map's coming soon, can't wait to play it!
...I must say though that it doesn't look like a summertime map for me...it looks something that I''ll play during autumn.


As for me, I didn't work on my map for the last 1,5 weeks, unfortunately. I'm with my laptop right now and while it's certainly possible to make maps using laptop, I never really managed to get the hang of it, especially when it comes to use of numeric keypad and stuff. Maybe i'll try to make something with it, but I think i'll better wait when I come back to PC...
BTW, is there anyone who's mapping on laptop?

[Merlijn]

Sanek, on 29 June 2020 - 03:48 PM, said:

@Maarten this particular shot reminds me of your part in Roch Island a little bit. Glad to hear that your map's coming soon, can't wait to play it!
...I must say though that it doesn't look like a summertime map for me...it looks something that I''ll play during autumn.

Our sky currently looks exactly like the one in Maartens screenshot. Welcome to the Netherlands, where we have rain in all 4 seasons.

About your other question, I also use a laptop for mapping and don't encounter any problems.
Is yours missing the num pads or something?

[Sanek]

Merlijn, on 30 June 2020 - 07:39 AM, said:

About your other question, I also use a laptop for mapping and don't encounter any problems.
Is yours missing the num pads or something?

I have num pads, they just don't work as they should in mapster. I use num pads for height purposes, but I just move around in 3D mode instead. I can use mouse wheel, but it's not as comfortable as using num pads.

[ck3D]

I used a (pretty terrible) laptop to map circa 2011-2016 and never had a problem with that as far as I remember. Can't remember the process in detail, there might have been some stuff that was harder to do (maybe panning/aligning textures? my memory is hazy) but I'd just develop alternatives to get the results I wanted.

[Maarten]

15-07-2020

[Forge]

i like the music as much as I like the map samples

+100

[Gambini]

Lovely stuff Maarten!

Music inspired on the map or map inspired by the music? Both are great!

[ck3D]

Got some progress down on map 3 of my thing which is now somewhere in the 400 sectors. Basically added a whole new section today and also lots of spritework including a pretty big 3D bridge (not visible on these screenshots). First pic is the view on the first plaza out of that elevator with the see-through windows I was talking about earlier. Second pic is a fraction of the second area (the original plaza can be made out somewhere in the background for reference), although those buildings in the back are a few weeks old - there's also some cool (mostly indoors) stuff I did today just in the back of the player here too that I need to finish (that portion is probably going to turn into a good third of the map which I didn't expect at first, but recently realized would make sense from a gameplay perspective so might as well push it a bit). Of course the detailing will come later, WIP barebones stuff and what-have-you, it's just kind of cool to post about the regular progress on this one as to document the process (e.g. here on screen 2 I'm definitely working on one specific zone of the level as its own whole), I also don't mind semi-spoiling it like this because the (temporary) default visibility kills all the depth anyway.

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[Maarten]

@ck3D: gotta love the direction your map is taking! Lights are awesome

@Gambini: thanks!! The music is a little bit based pn this map, although the climax became a lot bigger/louder while writting/recording haha. I always wanted to record something like this

@Forge: great to hear!! Thanks

The map will be for regular Eduke and this will be the music for it. I got helpful beta reports. Now finishing the last stuff & release date will be 15-07-20 (my birthday).

[ck3D]

Thanks, yeah I'm having lots of fun with lights and various brightness values/clipping distance in the editor, although in the end none of that will matter much as I'll probably just bump the visibility close to all the way up in every map for the finished product. This particular map I want to have a lot of neons and signs visible from a distance to create a pretty saturated 3D environment of colors, coupled with the vertical action and spritework I have in mind (for instance I would love to connect those two apartment buildings on screen 2 with a sprite floor) I feel like it can make for something funky (and not too distracting, I want to see if I can pull it off wisely).

Looking forward to the final release, beta-testing that map was awesome (thanks for trusting me), you already know what I think of it.

[Seb Luca]

A big hall for a new level (under construction) of MTK

[Sanek]

@Maarten, ck3D - fantastic job all around guys!

@Seb Luca - considering that you game's tileset is not as big as Duke's, it's very cool that you can make such kind of environment. Thumbs up!


As for me...I just tried to work on my map via laptop, and can't say that it's a good expierence. I can't navigate on laptop's keyboard as fast as on a regular one. i can't work in fullscreen mode, since it takes my laptop about 8 seconds to make a switch between 2D/3D modes. It minimizes the whole app before making a switch, and it's just tiresome. There's no such problem in windowed mode, but...it's windowed mode on a laptop, so thanks but no, thanks.

So I have two options right now:

1. Don't work on a map at all, which is not that bad, considering I'm laying out the rest of the map in my head.

2. Start making yet another map. I know this is not welcomed by the community, but I want to try it anyway. ck3D worked on his episode and the latest CBP section at the same time and from what I can tell (looking at screenshots), it doesn't hurt any of the projects.

I actually have the idea for a dull CBP myself, a map that won't require much work when it comes to details but rather rely on layout and lighting. I want to make a Doom-styled map, I really do. I don't know if any of the forum member like playing such maps in Duke, not to speak of participating in such projects, but I'll make a thread about it anyway to see if anybody's interested.

[Seb Luca]

Sanek, on 09 July 2020 - 06:27 AM, said:

@Seb Luca - considering that you game's tileset is not as big as Duke's, it's very cool that you can make such kind of environment. Thumbs up!

We should count, but I suppose that my stock of tileset is probably more provided and varied than the game of origin, since all this time
Thank you, however And good luck with your map, I can't wait to see it

[ck3D]

Sanek, on 09 July 2020 - 06:27 AM, said:

@Maarten, ck3D - fantastic job all around guys!

@Seb Luca - considering that you game's tileset is not as big as Duke's, it's very cool that you can make such kind of environment. Thumbs up!


As for me...I just tried to work on my map via laptop, and can't say that it's a good expierence. I can't navigate on laptop's keyboard as fast as on a regular one. i can't work in fullscreen mode, since it takes my laptop about 8 seconds to make a switch between 2D/3D modes. It minimizes the whole app before making a switch, and it's just tiresome. There's no such problem in windowed mode, but...it's windowed mode on a laptop, so thanks but no, thanks.

So I have two options right now:

1. Don't work on a map at all, which is not that bad, considering I'm laying out the rest of the map in my head.

2. Start making yet another map. I know this is not welcomed by the community, but I want to try it anyway. ck3D worked on his episode and the latest CBP section at the same time and from what I can tell (looking at screenshots), it doesn't hurt any of the projects.

I actually have the idea for a dull CBP myself, a map that won't require much work when it comes to details but rather rely on layout and lighting. I want to make a Doom-styled map, I really do. I don't know if any of the forum member like playing such maps in Duke, not to speak of participating in such projects, but I'll make a thread about it anyway to see if anybody's interested.

Oh I've had the 2D/3D mode switch lag thing before. Can't remember on which computer and which mode, but it rings a bell. On my desktop I've always used windowed mode (well since I started using eDuke32 anyway) and the -forcegl command (because the Mapster32 version I like to use is barely compatible with my graphics card), and on that laptop I used to use, I can't remember anything besides how in the end it was working smoothly enough for me to make many maps on it so maybe I was running it in windowed mode too, I don't know.

Working on my own maps and the CBP was fun but only possible because Sixty Four was lenient on the production pace, towards the end of the process it was actually really tempting to just sit on the CBP part in its 95% completion state for a while and focus on Blast Radius instead (also because I'm super into the map I'm making right now), I only kicked myself in the ass to go and wrap it up this week because I'm leaving on a trip the next and wanted Sixty Four to have it before then. That and recently I've been hit with a lot of work but like you're saying, that's only time you can use to mentally nurture the ideas for the level when you can't help but be away from it, and then when you finally get some luxury mapping time it's like a big release.

Also working on different maps at the same time really isn't 'not welcomed by the community' at all, maybe in your head it is but I feel like the process isn't wrong per se, it's when the person takes on more than what they can actually handle, disperses their energy and in the end never releases anything that some folks are bound to get riled up. But if you keep releasing what you make as you complete it then no one should have a problem with your workflow at all. Just don't give up on the maps - I couldn't even fathom giving up on a map myself without ever instantly recycling its resources or something, I'd just fucking hate myself for all the wasted time.